New Years Resolution

Giving to others has always been a large part of my life. Growing up in a church family we were constantly helping other organizations, finding families in need, donating to each other within the church. Then in high school I got involved with a service organization and donated my time to reading to elementary school children, serving in soup kitchens, and continuously helped out with church events. In college I joined a service sorority and was involved in 6+ service projects a semester.

The first couple years after college I managed to stay somewhat involved in giving. I volunteered some time at the animal shelter, helped adopt a family and now that I was financially stable, I started donating financially. In the last couple of weeks I noticed that I haven't been giving as much as I used to as in I have pretty much only donated financially for the past couple of years. I realize how much I miss it. My husband and I also reviewed our annual budget and realized we donate less than 1% of our income to others. FAIL! We are not struggling so this realization really hit me hard.

Therefore a New Years Resolution was born! My priority new years resolution for 2014 is to donate my time or finances to one organization a month. Here are my parameters:

• Donations do not need to be to the same organization each month but they can repeat. 
• I will at least double my donations from 2013
• Donations do not have to be tax deductible (I am an accountant after all so this is a big one)
• At least every other month needs to be a donation of my time

I'm hoping this is just the push I need to get myself back on track! Since OPA (College Service Sorority) was a HUGE part of my life back in college and I have now started meeting some new ladies that are still active on the executive board - my January donation will be to Omega Phi Alpha's Scholarship Trust.

Keep me accountable and let me know if you have any additional ideas on how I can give back!